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June 26, 2011

Electronic Arts Website Hacked

by Sam Savage

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) confirmed on its website Friday that hackers may have gotten their hands on user information such as birth dates, phone numbers and mailing addresses in what they are calling a "highly sophisticated" attack.

A computer network hosting BioWare Edmonton's "Neverwinter Nights" game forums was the target of the attack and the company said it will continue to investigate the intrusion. EA also updated its Q&A section to give information on the recent data breach and to ensure its customers that it is doing everything possible to safeguard their system from further attacks.

EA said in its Q&A, however, that it isn't possible to stop hackers 100 percent of the time. EA said it found out about the hack job on June 14.

"We have moved swiftly to implement additional security controls to prevent this type of breach from happening again to secure your data and are conducting further evaluations now," EA said in a message on its website.

No credit card information was taken during the attack, according to the California-based company, although the information that was looted could be very useful for phishing attempts.

The company has disabled "potentially affected legacy BioWare accounts" and reset passwords of any affected EA accounts. It further said that anyone with a potentially affected account would receive an email with more information.

This attack is the latest in a treasure trove of cyber attacks that have targeted Sony, Nintendo, Sega, PBS, the Senate, the CIA, and even the Arizona Police.

EA offered tips to its customers and to consumers in general on how to avoid identity theft. It also directed its users to the US Federal Trade Commission's Internet fraud website for further information.